Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Advocates For Same-Sex Labs Because Women Cry Too Much; Female Scientists Respond Accordingly
Meet #distractinglysexy, your new favourite hashtag.
Today is the fifth and final day of South Korea’s World Conference of Science Journalists, one of the world’s biggest science journalism events: basically a trade conference for people far smarter and less afraid of space than I will ever be. By their very nature, trade conferences aren’t the kind of event that tends to break news across culture sites and launch globally trending hashtags — unless of course something appallingly sexist happens.
Which brings us to Nobel Prize-Winning scientist Tim Hunt, a 72-year-old British biochemist and a fellow with the UK’s Royal Society science body, who gave a speech at the conference advocating for single-sex labs. “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls,” he began, with a proverbial doff of the fedora. “Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry.”
Although he claims the comments were intended jokingly, the fall-out since has been as you would expect from a S.T.E.M industry that suffers quite enough already from gender inequality across the board. Connie St Louis, a lecturer in science journalism, was one of the women in an audience of around 100: “Nobody was laughing, everybody was stony-faced,” she told the BBC. “The Korean female scientists who hosted us looked aghast and he just ploughed on for about five to seven minutes … I just thought, ‘Where in the world do you think you are that you can be making these kind of comments in 2015?'”
Hunt was pressured to apologise in a BBC interview on Wednesday, saying it was intended as a “light-hearted, ironic comment” that was taken too seriously by the crowd. “I’m really, really sorry I caused any offence, that’s awful”, he said, before negating that non-apology apology with a whole bunch of caveats, including “It was a very stupid thing to do in the presence of all those journalists” and “I just meant to be honest, actually.”
Burrowing himself ever-deeper into the test-tube of ham-fisted misogyny that appears to be his life, he undermined that apology even further by defending his comments about women crying too much — “It’s terribly important that you can criticise people’s ideas without criticising them and if they burst into tears, it means that you tend to hold back from getting at the absolute truth.” — and double-underlining that problem he has with women: “I did mean the part about having trouble with girls,” he said. “I have fallen in love with people in the lab and people in the lab have fallen in love with me and it’s very disruptive to the science.”
Female scientists on Twitter have responded accordingly, with the hashtag equivalent of this:
Meet #distractinglysexy:
Call for all female scientists to upload pictures of themselves at work with the hashtag #distractinglysexy
— The Vagenda Team (@VagendaMagazine) June 10, 2015
Best part of being a marine ecologist? No one can tell you’re crying underH2O. Though wetsuits are #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/tX5cFmeFgm — Angee Doerr (@andoerr) June 11, 2015
I fell in love with the microcentrifuge… typical woman in the lab. #DistractinglySexy pic.twitter.com/JFXZPrjWgv
— Point Mutation (@Point_Mutation) June 11, 2015
Need to wear bunny suit and face mask so rover won’t fall in love with me. #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/CYpRe27vfL — Kimberly Lichtenberg (@marssciencegrad) June 11, 2015
When you’re trying to survey salmon and I’m #distractinglysexy — it must be the waders pic.twitter.com/FxlQUYCmtZ
— Heather Sadusky (@heathersadusky) June 11, 2015
Barbara McClintock #distractinglysexy (and my personal science shero) pic.twitter.com/XcX8JUrRO5 — MarinaS (@marstrina) June 10, 2015
Hearts in the palm of our hands #distractinglysexy #TimHunt @VagendaMagazine pic.twitter.com/KA1askiwCD
— ash (@ashcl0ud) June 11, 2015
Nothing like a sample tube full of cheetah poop to make you #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/tdBTLRos4p — Sarah Durant (@SarahMDurant) June 11, 2015
I’m really glad that Curie managed to take a break from crying to discover radium and polonium #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/txYVHoidK5
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) June 11, 2015
The #distractinglysexy trend is phenomenal. Here I am shoulder-deep in cow rectum, so seductive! pic.twitter.com/fz0v5fygTK — justmeness (@VanessaAdams6) June 11, 2015
Neuro grad student freezer diving for fish brain slides. #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/XqGGeUZKjL
— Cathy Newman (@cenewman0) June 11, 2015
Still #distractinglysexy after a full day of cell culture. Didn’t even cry this time, so proud! #HeyaTimHunt pic.twitter.com/RdAxxLJ1fY — Lucie de Beauchamp (@lu_debeauchamp) June 11, 2015